Hello, Maggie-sensei!一人で日本語を習うから、時々マギー先生の便利な記事を読む。ありがとうその記事を
では、今漫画が訳したに「怖がられそう」を見つけた。怖がるは「to scare」、られ（る）は potential or passive voiceそして「そう」！
全部の言葉は「マスク外したら怖がられそう？」
So, “if you had taken your mask out it would have been scary?”

The person who takes off the mask is the listener, “you”?
If so,I think you got the meaning.
“If you had taken off your mask, they (people around you or particular people depending on the content) would be very scared.

Would it be correct to say the difference of using the adverbial form of an adjective and that of ~そう is as follows:
悲しく笑う – to smile sadly
悲しそうに笑う – to smile seemingly sadly
悲しくなる – to become sad
悲しそうになる – to seem to become sad (or maybe a slightly different sense, like to become what seems to be sad?)

Also, is it possible to use hearsay ~そう as an adjective? As in:
面白いそうな映画 – the movie that I heard is good
面白いそうな映画を見たい – I want to watch the movie that I heard is good.

悲しく笑う – to smile sadly → OK
悲しそうに笑う – to smile seemingly sadly→ OK
悲しくなる – to become sad→ OK
悲しそうになる – to seem to become sad (or maybe a slightly different sense, like to become what seems to be sad?→ That’s right! )

Also, is it possible to use hearsay ~そう as an adjective? As in:
面白いそうな映画 – the movie that I heard is good → The meaning changes but you say 面白そうな映画 (The movie which looks interesting) the speaker thinks the movie is interesting.

面白いという映画 / その映画は面白いらしい ( I heard that movie is interesting.)

面白いそうな映画を見たい – I want to watch the movie that I heard is good.→ 面白いという 面白そうな映画

Hi Yan!
Basically when you judge from the appearance/what you see, you use そう and when you judge things by having observed them or gathering information, you use よう.

彼、優しそうな人です。 He looks sweet. (The speaker/writer is judging him by his appearance.)
彼、優しいような人です。→It should be 彼は、優しい人のようです。(According to what the speaker/writer has been observing, he seems like a nice person.)

雨が降りそうです。It looks like rain. /It is about to rain.
雨が降るようです。It will probably rain. / It is likely to rain.

Hi Maggie-sensei! Thanks for the explanations regarding そう.
I have a question: what about te-form + そう？
Does it have the meaning of “It looks like it is engaged in that particular activity/state”?
For example, パンを買ってそうだ。 Does it mean, “It looks like (they are) currently buying bread”?
Any clarification would be appreciated.
Thanks!

Hi Jeremy
I think what you meant is this pattern.
〜ていそう
→casual contraction てそう
OK, パンを買っている＋そうだ。→パンを買っていそうだ→(casual contraction) パンを買ってそうだ
Ex. 彼女はお弁当は作らずに毎日パンを買って（い）そうだ。
She appears to be a person who buys bread everyday without making boxed lunch.
If you want to say
“It looks like (they are) currently buying bread”?
パンを買っているみたいだ。・パンを買っているようだ。

先生、助けてください！
I am teaching senior Japanese for the first time, and one of the sections in the textbook is about using そうな and そうに, and I am struggling to explain the difference to them.
It has been a few years since I have used my Japanese, so getting it all back is difficult!

This was very useful and detailed. Thank you. I know you covered 重そう which is the adj + ending removed + そう but I was wondering what about if someone says “Maggie, you seemed to have lost weight”. I was thinking you could say something like “痩せたみたいです” but is it possible to use そう because its the past tense so I’m not sure if that makes sense.

Hello Miburi!
Good point! “Maggie, you seemed to have lost weight” is 痩せたみたい
そう is only used to describe the current or sometime future condition.
If I am working on a diet and I think it may work, I can say 痩せそう。
And if you see someone who looks skinny you can say
細そう

Thank you 先生! You explained it very well. 「細そう」はかなり言いにくいですね。
I was wondering from the comment below, “彼はいつもセーターを着ていそうだ。”
Can we use any action form that’s present tense or future with そう? like くれる＝くれそう
For instance, “it seems like he’s always teaching me English.”
彼はいつも私に英語を教えてくれそうです。 Does that make sense?

先生, I have a question about some variations on the “it looks like…” structure. How should I complete this:

(丁寧体 ／ 普通体)
A) It looks like it’s going to rain – 雨が降りそうです。 / 雨が降りそうだ。
* No doubt here… I hope.
B) It doesn’t look like it’s going to rain – 雨が降りそう_____。 / 雨が降りそう_____。
* I /think/, based on some research, it might be 雨が降りそうもありません。 / 雨が降りそうもない。 Right? But I’m not sure about the も or why it’s there. そうではありません / そうではない would make a lot more sense for a beginner like me =p
C) It looked like it was going to rain – 雨が降りそう_____。 / 雨が降りそう_____。
* My guess, based on another comment: 雨が降りそうでした。 / 雨が降りそうだった。
D) It didn’t look like it was going to rain – 雨が降りそう____。 / 雨が降りそう____。
* No clue on this one. If the も thing’s right, then, maybe: 雨が降りそうもありませんでした。 / 雨が降りそうもなかった。

B) It doesn’t look like it’s going to rain – 雨が降りそう_____。 / 雨が降りそう_____。
* I /think/, based on some research, it might be 雨が降りそうもありません。 / 雨が降りそうもない。 Right? But I’m not sure about the も or why it’s there. そうではありません / そうではない would make a lot more sense for a beginner like me =p

It is possible to say 降りそうではありません / 降りそうではない but 降りそうもない／降りそうもありません are more common.
When you use そう in a negative sentence, we often add も to stress the meaning.
そうもありません。そうもない
“も” has a function to emphasizing the phrase. Not even close to ~/ It seems like there is no way ~

We also say

降りそうにありません。／降りそうにない
and
降りそうにもありません。／降りそうにもない (stronger)

C) It looked like it was going to rain – 雨が降りそう_____。 / 雨が降りそう_____。
* My guess, based on another comment: 雨が降りそうでした。 / 雨が降りそうだった。

Good!

D) It didn’t look like it was going to rain – 雨が降りそう____。 / 雨が降りそう____。
* No clue on this one. If the も thing’s right, then, maybe: 雨が降りそうもありませんでした。 / 雨が降りそうもなかった。

Hi! I ask some jap friends and they don’t know i mean some of them said that is 行かなそう corect and others said that 行かなさそう is correct so it’s quite strange XD Thank you for your quick help! 相変わらず最高！マギー先生

BTW i have small sugestion i think it will be better for us (people who want to learn) if you will put everything i mean how the verb will change or noun it will be easier to learn. Anyway thank you so much!^__^

多分ただ曲で使ってもかまいませんでしょう
→？？（Can you give me the translation here? 何を「使ってもかまわないでしょう」といいたいですか？)
**********
Now as for your question, らしい, yes, you can use 名詞+らしい
and you are right, if you say マギーらしい it refers to my personality or what I would do.
I have to send you another related lesson. らしい

BTW I will take vacation from tomorrow so I may not be able to answer your question for a week but will get back to you when I come back.
勉強続けてね！

Sensei, I forgot to ask about the 2nd PS.
Is it possible to use ～そう with verbs in past? I mean, to tell how you think that something happened.
For example, would 「車で衝突した？酔っていたそう。。。」 make sense?
Assuming that you’ll read this when you come back…
I hope you had had great vacations!